This invention relates to urological apparatus and more specifically to drainage tube and urine meter combinations.
Some typical urine meters consist of a rigid chamber flexibly coupled to a vinyl drainage bag at the upper back surface of the chamber. Such meters are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,178,934 to Forman for example. In use, urine is allowed to collect in the chamber where it can be accurately measured. The urine may be manually dumped into the chamber by tilting the chamber upwards, thus allowing the urine to flow by gravity into the bag.
During dumping of such meters, urine may flow back into the inlet tube where it could contaminate urine in the tube, thereby potentially creating an increased incidence of bladder infection and also causing inaccuracy in subsequent measurements of urine in the meter. One possible solution to this problem is to add an anti-reflex valve in line with the drain tube, but this considerably increases the cost and reduces the reliability of the meter.